The Future Property Transaction Group (FPT Group), a multi-stakeholder initiative instigated by Pexa, has released its Future of Residential Property Transactions report.

The new report reveals that, even before major reforms to the homebuying and property sector take effect, there is opportunity for significant, additional and rapid productivity gains across the industry.

Collaborative digital adoption and process enhancement has the potential to halve the current mortgage completion timeline from an average of 126 days to just 59 days from application.

The report is the culmination of a regional pilot in West Yorkshire lasting more than 12 months, established with the goal of being a “regional proof point for a national problem”. By pooling over 40,000 lines of anonymised data from lenders, conveyancers, and tech providers, the group has identified a number of actions to help address the fragmentation and systemic inefficiency that costs the UK economy an estimated £1.5bn annually in failed transactions.

The FPT Group proposes a balanced roadmap for stakeholders, covering three categories of action:

Encouraging early legal instruction upon property listing and wider adoption of digital onboarding to address post-offer delays.

Launching an integrated digital transaction pilot and enhanced upfront leasehold information trials.

Advocating for unified digital identity, supporting the shift of AML supervision to the FCA, and prioritising interoperable infrastructure that enables secure data sharing across the transaction.

Commenting Pexa UK chief executive Joe Pepper said: “The FPT Group was set up to provide a collaborative space in which all industry players can drive progress in the home buying journey. The market is under immense pressure, with consumers increasingly expecting faster progress and clearer updates, so anything we can do to ease the burden for conveyancers who are trying to deliver good consumer outcomes should be a top priority.

He added: “There are clearly steps that we can take to drive progress in the short-term. Longer-term, the Government is quite rightly looking holistically at what positive reforms can support our industry and improve the home buying process. This shared endeavour shows the ability and willingness of the sector to come together and drive positive change. What is critical now, for both the industry, and Government, is to act on this insight.”